 "Carlos Alcaraz defeated Lorenzo Musetti at the ATP Finals to climb back to the top spot. Image: Reuters")
Carlos Alcaraz has finished the 2025 season on a high after beating Lorenzo Musetti at the ATP Finals, which helped him seal the year-ending No. 1 ranking. This is the second time in his career that Alcaraz has achieved this feat. With this, he won his tight battle with Jannik Sinner and secured the top spot in men’s tennis once again.
Alcaraz was one of the favourites to end the year as the world No. 1, especially after he defeated Sinner in the US Open final in September. But the race became close when Sinner won the China Open, Vienna Open, and the Paris Masters immediately after that. This meant Alcaraz had to win all three group-stage matches in the ATP Finals to stay ahead in the rankings.
Alcaraz enters record books
The 22-year-old Spaniard played some of his best tennis at the ATP Finals to script history. Musetti could not trouble him much, and Alcaraz won easily by 6-4, 6-1. With this, he became only the second player in history to end the year as No. 1 two times in a row before turning 23. This is a feat that even Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic could not manage in their early days.
Speaking after the match, Alcaraz said the result meant a lot to him because he was playing with the pressure of securing the year-end No. 1 ranking. Alcaraz admitted the match was not easy due to nerves, but he was happy with how he handled the pressure.
“The match was really important for me, playing for year-end number one. It wasn’t easy at the beginning with the nerves. I tried to handle that pressure the best I could, so I’m just really happy with the level I played and to be able to end the year as the number one,” Alcaraz said after the match.
The pressure was huge for Alcaraz because a loss could have made things very difficult for him in the ranking race. Sinner was in top form throughout the season and was also the favourite to win the title.